A Guide to Piazza Discussion ThreadsWhat is a Piazza discussion thread?A Piazza discussion thread is a question that is posted on the discussion site, Piazza. Two discussion threads are posted per week, each 48 hours before the next class. The questions are open-ended, which means that there’s no one right answer; in fact, some of these questions are so open-ended that you could write a book in response tomany of them! You are expected to post a response to five different discussion threads over the course of the semester. However, you should make sure that you post while the thread is open – responses that are after the deadline when the thread closes will not receive a grade.When will threads be posted?Generally, threads will be posted on Sunday and Tuesday at noon CST, during weeks when there is a discussion. Check the list of dates for Piazza threads in the Piazza Folder and plan your schedule! The threads will close on Tuesday and Thursday at 9 am CST.Will you give me credit for two posts if I post twice in the samediscussion?No, you will only receive credit for one post; however, posting twice can work in your favor. For instance, if someone else points out that you made a mistake or asks for clarification, sometimes going back and responding to this can improve your overall score for that thread.What is the grader looking for when s/he grades my posts?These are pretty interconnected:1) A thoughtful argument2) Clear, specific connections to the original prompt, to other posts, or both3) Good use of the class materials4) New concepts that have not already been discussed by others onthe thread – if you repeat something that someone has already said without differentiating it in some way, you will not receive ashigh a grade as the original poster.5) Correct English without grammatical errorsWhat is the relationship between the threads for each week and the homework that is due for class?The questions are written with the material that you should be reading at the same time in mind. For example, a thread that closes on Tuesday at 9am will be written thinking about material due on that same Tuesday at 2pm. This does not mean that you shouldn’t think about other things that you’ve learned in class or other concepts thatyou want to apply to the material – it just means that you should probably read the assigned material and think about it before answering the thread.So this is just a dirty, rotten trick to get me to do the assigned reading ahead of time and make me think about it?Yup.What are the moderators doing when they post to the thread?The moderators are doing two things: they are providing feedback to individual posters and they are asking questions to get the discussion to move along. Feedback lets other people know what sorts of posts are good; also, sometimes we will point out aspects that we find interesting in order to draw the attention of someone who hasn’t posted yet. Asking questions has a practical function: there are a LOT of students, and sometimes many need to post, and they still have to say something new. Moderator questions suggest new things that students who have just arrived to the board can think about so that they can make more interesting posts.When a moderator asks a pointed question, is she looking for an exact answer?Not necessarily. It is true that the moderator has something in mind that the class hasn’t discussed yet – but it’s great if you think of something that the moderator hasn’t! Sometimes the moderator will try to push for a particular concept to be explored… but please do not be deterred from making a thoughtful answer to a question just because you are afraid that you cannot read the moderator’s mind.Why are the questions so open-ended?As I said before, some of these questions look deceptively small, but we ask them because they can be really big. One reason is practical: there are a lot of students, and we want to give as many opportunities as possible for students to post on a thread. Another reason has to do with learning: we can tell you an awful lot in class about Roman History, but we cannot tell you everything. You actually get a lot more out of thinking for yourself than you do from absorbing what we tell you. A big question lets you think about other things you’ve already learned in this class, as well as things you’ve learned from other histories or things you’ve learned from the experience of being a human being.So you don’t expect me to answer the entire question in one post?No. Besides, answers that try to tackle the entire question in one go are often weaker than answers that just aim for arguing a partial answer to the question.So, what’s the difference between a discussion board and a short answer on an exam?Ok, so, maybe the grad student grading your exam is more likely to ask this than you will, but still… A good short-answer response will list off a number of factual points. Correct answers will look roughly similarbecause, well, there are only so many correct answers. A discussion board should have different people saying different things because it’s a DISCUSSION, aka a conversation. This means that your post should consider what else has been said in the thread as a whole: it should agree or disagree while adding something new to the conversation. Sometimes this means that you will say things that the grader hasn’t even thought of, and that is not bad or wrong – it can be very, very good.Why can’t I be anonymous?YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT IF YOU DO NOT HAVE YOUR NAME ON YOUR POSTS. If you’ve spent any time on a public discussion board, you know how people use their anonymity to say nasty things that they would never say in person or if their real names were attached. This is a place to practice being respectful to one another, even when you disagree. Additionally, even if you are anonymous but not being a jerk, it is still disrespectful to your classmates who have attached their names to their posts that you have not attached your name to your work.When will my grade be posted on Blackboard?Generally, the posts will be graded by Don Carlo and grades will be posted no later than one week after the discussion thread closes. Occasionally, when a thread receives an exceptional number of posts, it may take a few days longer. If you have not received a grade two weeks after a post, please email Don Carlo and he will review the thread to check that he didn’t miss